George Washington Thornton Beck (1856-1943) was the son of James B. Beck, a U.S. senator from Kentucky. George Beck came to Wyoming in 1879 and settled near Sheridan where he engaged in sheep ranching until 1889. He built a flour mill at the settlement of Beckton, Wyoming, in 1884 and a second flour mill with electrical plant and water works at Buffalo, Wyoming, in 1886. In 1895, in partnership with Horatio Alger and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Beck formed the Shoshone Land and Irrigation Company, which undertook construction of the Cody Canal and the town of Cody, Wyoming. Later the partnership was expanded to include four men from Buffalo, New York: H.M. Gerrans, George Bleistein, Bronson Rumsey, and Nate Salsbury, manager of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The construction of the canal was plagued by money shortages, and it was eventually completed by the government. Beck also financed and managed the Shoshone Electric Light and Power Company, which provided electricity to the town of Cody, and invested in various mining and oil ventures in Wyoming and Georgia.
Beck, a Democrat, served as president of the last Wyoming Territorial legislature in 1889. He returned to the Wyoming State legislature as a senator in 1913 and 1915, and he campaigned unsuccessfully for the U.S. congress (1890) and the Wyoming governorship (1902). On Dec. 1, 1897, Beck married Daisy M. Sorenson of Marquette, Wyoming. They had three children, Betty (born 1898, later Mrs. Doyle Joslin and Mrs. J.M. Roberson), Jane (born 1900, later Mrs. Nelson T. Johnson), and George Thornton Beck Jr. (born 1908).
From the guide to the Beck Family papers, 1858-1992, (University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center.)
